I, and probably quite a few of you, are wondering what has happened to our birds. Even though the feeders are well stocked, there do not seem to be the numbers of birds feeding that I/we have grown used to. The weather is the obvious answer, as more of the natural food has been made accessible as the thawing sun melts the ice-coated snow-covered foliage and the ground. It is still quite treacherous to venture out to replenish the feeders on the slippery ground, so I can imagine foraging for food in the trees and bushes isn’t too much fun either, which is what the birds have to cope with if feeders are not available to them!

When talking of walking to my feeders, I am referring to the ones that are on fixed posts located in the front garden, and a couple hanging in an old tree there too. The ice-covered snow, which, even though I had used a snow blower at the first snowfall, is still evident and being followed by a freezing rain covering, is still “dodgy” to navigate to get to them. 

However, I do have some suspended feeders under my eaves in front of our living-room windo, which aren’t affected so much by the snow and freezing rain, and there seems to be a lack of bird activity on them too. These feeders are easily and safely accessed, so are always kept well stocked, but the birds are not using them to the extent that we are used to. Maybe it  is not deemed severe enough for them to take up their winter stance here and they have decided to move back to their more usual habitat wherever that might be.

I have included a couple of pictures of some of our “regulars”. One is a Goldfinch which uses our suspended feeders and the other is a Dark-eyed Junco, one of our “ground feeders”; a couple of them, due to the icy conditions, have even tried to use the suspended feeders.

Stay safe and well when walking please.

Cheers,
John Baldwin

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